The European spot ferro-silicon price resumed its downturn last week, falling to a level last seen in March 2016 with consumers in the steel sector dragging down the cost of feedstock against a slump in end-user consumption. Confirmed deals in Europe included a 400-tonne sale reportedly done at ?,?870 ($978) per tonne delivered, with another 75 tonnes sold at ?,?910-920 per tonne. Another deal for...Read More
The European markets for both high- and low-carbon ferro-chrome, delivered, softened in the week ended Friday June 26 in response to weak consumption.Both consumers and producers of ferro-chrome said that they would be reducing their outputs by more than usual during the summer slowdown in 2020, in response to the low economic activity.Fastmarkets' weekly assessment of the price for ferro-chrome,...Read More
China's leading stainless steel producers - Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Tisco), Tsingshan Group and Baosteel - have all lowered their high-carbon ferro-chrome tender prices for July following a recent backswing in upstream chrome ore prices.Meanwhile, the continuing supply tightness affecting ore and alloy from South Africa could limit the domestic price downtrend in the near term, market participants s...Read More
There are many crosswinds for the markets to contend with this morning, Wednesday July 1, with better manufacturing data in Asia and interest rate cuts in China, but a deteriorating Covid-19 situation - especially in parts of the Americas - and raised geopolitical tension over Hong Kong.* China’s Caixin and Japan’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) climbed to 51.2 fr...Read More
CANADA DAY U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 8 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures recovered following release of the June ADP Private Employment report released at 8:15 AM EDT. Consensus was an increase of 3.000 million versus an upwardly revised gain of 3.065 million in May. Previous May report indicated a drop of 2.760 million. Actual in Jun...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday June 29 that are worth another look.Mining company BHP Group and steel producer China Baowu Steel Group have completed their first iron ore trade on MineHub Technologies Inc's blockchain-based platform.Poor physical aluminium market conditions have forced people to store excess metal, pushing total aluminium stocks on the London Met...Read More
The mining industry does a huge amount of good for local communities, to say nothing of its essential contribution to society through the materials it produces. Unfortunately, it all too often manages to give itself a bad name, worsening negative perceptions of the sector through accidents, spills and a failure to act as a steward of the environments in which it operates. In the past month alone,...Read More
Huaxing alumina refinery, in Shanxi province of northern China, has closed one alumina production line following an equipment accident, several sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29. It could take 20-30 days to return the production line to full operation, removing around 50,000-80,000 tonnes of alumina supply from the Chinese domestic market over the period, according to market estimates. Hu...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday June 29 that are worth another look.Mining company BHP Group and steel producer China Baowu Steel Group have completed their first iron ore trade on MineHub Technologies Inc's blockchain-based platform.Poor physical aluminium market conditions have forced people to store excess metal, pushing total aluminium stocks on the London Met...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday June 29 that are worth another look.Mining company BHP Group and steel producer China Baowu Steel Group have completed their first iron ore trade on MineHub Technologies Inc's blockchain-based platform.Poor physical aluminium market conditions have forced people to store excess metal, pushing total aluminium stocks on the London Met...Read More
The latest data for the global manganese ore market for the week ended June 29, 2020.Read More
Huaxing alumina refinery, in Shanxi province of northern China, has closed one alumina production line following an equipment accident, several sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29. It could take 20-30 days to return the production line to full operation, removing around 50,000-80,000 tonnes of alumina supply from the Chinese domestic market over the period, according to market estimates. Hu...Read More
The latest data for the global manganese ore market for the week ended June 29, 2020.Read More
Covid-19 has exposed the overdependence and vulnerability in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, which supports the development of other regional battery production hubs in the coming years, panellists said in a Fastmarkets webinar last week."There is growing nationalism and regionalism [and] coronavirus has been a wake-up call for how dependent industries are on China," Emily Hersh, managing...Read More
The Turkish steel mills continued to shy away from deep-sea scrap purchases at the beginning of this week, expecting lower prices soon, sources said on Monday June 29.The mills in Turkey booked only two deep-sea cargoes last week, which totaled 67,500 tonnes.Producers have been keeping their deep-sea scrap purchases at a low level because of the limited demand and, therefore, falling prices for lo...Read More
Turkish domestic scrap prices have gone down over the past week in line with the latest downturn in imported deep-sea scrap values, sources said on Monday June 29.Several steel producers decreased their domestic buy prices for both auto bundle and shipbreaking scrap last week.Long and flat steelmaker ??olakoglu cut its buy price for auto bundle scrap by 60 lira per tonne to 1,885 lira ($275) per t...Read More
Asian-Pacific equities and pre-market European equity index futures were weaker this morning, Monday June 29, but base metals prices were for the most part firmer. Nikkei led on the downside this morning with losses of 2.21%.Covid-19 surges in some southern US states, with 2.5 million confirmed cases reported in the country.Profits in China's industrial sector showed growth of 6% year on year in M...Read More
A summary of Australian lithium-spodumene producer Altura's operational results for the second quarter of 2020, released by the company on Monday June 29.In briefThe company achieved record total sales and shipments of 58,208 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of lithium concentrate in the second quarter of 2020, up around 23% from the previous quarter and the best quarterly sales result since the company st...Read More
Canada-based Sigma Lithium Resources has secured the last tranche of the funds needed to begin construction of its commercial spodumene carbonate plant in Brazil, expected to start producing in 2022, chief strategy officer Ana Cabral-Gardner told Fastmarkets on Friday June 26.The company has signed an agreement for a $45-million project finance facility led by French bank Soci?(C)t?(C) G?(C)n?(C)r...Read More
Covid-19 has exposed the overdependence and vulnerability in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, which supports the development of other regional battery production hubs in the coming years, panellists said in a Fastmarkets webinar last week."There is growing nationalism and regionalism [and] coronavirus has been a wake-up call for how dependent industries are on China," Emily Hersh, managing...Read More